We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Since the Party was the agent of History itself, it could not be mistaken, and so anything the party did was morally right by definition. “Morality is entirely subordinated to the class struggle of the proletariat,” Lenin declared. At the Thirteenth Party Congress in 1924, Trotsky explained:

"Comrades, none of us wishes or is able to be right against his Party. The Party in the last analysis is always right, because the Party is the sole historical instrument given the proletariat for the solution of its basic problems. . . . I know that one cannot be right against the party. It is only possible to be right with the Party and through the Party for history has not created other ways for the realization of what is right."

Timing - notice that Hillary is referencing use of a Blackberry (berry addicts) in the initial email. Powell didn't suggest that she use one, nor does he suggest that she setup a private server (which had already been done at this time).

Account vs Server - Powell is clear that he used a personal email account, not server and appears to have used it for specific purposes (friends, some foreign leaders, some senior staff), not that all of his email was routed through this non-government account.

Powell is also clear that he didn't regularly use the private account (got around it by not saying much) because he knew any official communication would be subject to FOIA and other rules regarding record retention, regardless of the status of the account/server.

Smooth sumac is more or less a weed tree, but I plant it in front of the house to create shade. It really lowers the house temperature in the summer, and casts little shadow in the winter so the sun heats the house again. It's very lightweight so doesn't damage the house.

re Britain’s June 23 referendum on independence was the most important vote in a democratic nation in a generation.

Really?

Everyone still talks a good game but has there been any concrete move towards the exit?

I still think the ruling class and the deep state have devised a strategy to stall . . . and stall . . . and stall, hoping the public eventually forgets about it or that public opinion shifts and they can hold another vote nullifying the Brexit.

The company I work for is pretty deep in this (we're the US subsidiary of a Dutch firm with operations in the UK, and support our IT operations globally). We're just taking stock of what might happen. You are right that there are a lot of balls in the air. The official announcement of intention to exit won't occur until 2017 as announced by the new British PM, then there will be at least 2 years of negotiations on the terms of the exit. In the mean time the Scots and Irish (who wanted to remain) may decide they will exit the UK for the EU and other EU members may decide to leave. It's possible that the decision could be reversed (the referendum was not intended to be binding) but if there isn't a repudiation of the exit announcement then England is out of the EU in about two years, regardless of the status of negotiations.

I was under the impression that the UK would remain in the UK until negotiations were complete and just figured they would be dragged out forever. I did not know they would be out in two years regardless if there was no repudiation of the exit announcement.

I also thought waiting for 2017 to make the official announcement was a stalll tactic.

The "people don't care" election takes on Trump's tax returns. Charles Ortel, the guru of Wall Street who took on GE's shenanigans, is now investigating The Clinton Foundation and finding massive irregularities. Leave it to Bill and Hilarity to have one more "gate" in their repertoire. Nixon is looking good now.

Now? My dear jma, I moved Nixon to second place in 1993 after the Clintons brought over the FBI files of their political opponents, and 3rd after Jimmy Carter negotiated with North Korea in 1994 without consulting much of anyone. After that, I decided my Nixon-as-demon belief was probably fevered and I resolved to look at him differently. His "legendary" dishonesty looks pretty typical to me now. He happened to be disliked and get caught when journalists decided exposing presidents was the most important thing they could do. LBJ and Kennedy weren't that different. Thank you for bringing this up.

FBI was the last Federal agency I thought would fold to political pressure, and now it has.

My suspicions about the dodgy SCOTUS Obamacare decisions - "it's a tax!" & "'State' actually means 'federal'" are now more than suspicions. I'm convinced there was coercion of some kind and decisions were corrupt.

I don't view the federal government as being fully legitimate anymore.

The Party is God. The Party demands sacrifices to "immanentize the eschaton." It is more convenient to sacrifice others, of course, but be content even if one day it may be your turn: The Party takes away; blessed be the name of the Party.

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